Zanrai Interactive has recently announced that their four-player, competitive or cooperative action-arcade game with bullet-hell elements has landed on Steam’s Greenlight community service. The name of the game? Stardust Vanguards. The developers recently sent over a press notice explaining what the game is about and how it’s played, and after watching the trailer it’s easy to see how Stardust Vanguards could easily become one of those snowballing sleeper hits due to its unique premise and pretty slick gameplay mechanics.

I’ll try not to butcher the description of the game, but basically Stardust Vanguards is a single-screen action-arcade game. Players can either battle it out in free-for-all matches or throwdown in team-deathmatch style encounters, flying and moving around as space-mechs with swords and guns.

The real hook is that space pirates can invade the match; players can build up their own allies to fight for them, or all four players can work together to take down hordes of enemies. While it may seem confusing, you can see how it plays out with the trailer below.

Follow Us On Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/zanrai_int Dev Blog: https://www.zanrai.com Stardust Vanguards is a local, 4 player arena dueling game where your powerup is calling in reinforcements. The game is balanced for high-speed, competitive gameplay.

It’s like a mix of Asteroids, Thexder and Macross, all rolled into one massive, multiplayer showdown.

While I was originally a bit skeptical of another sprite-based, bullet-hell arcade title, I do have to admit that the summons, the co-op, the competitive features, the NPCs, the fast-paced battles – it looks like it works and works well.

Of course, I was sent over a playable demo of the game and I’ll see if I can get some time in with the title to give some first-hand impressions of the experience. The only roadblock is making time.

Stardust Vanguards is set to finish its development cycle by mid-September. However, the team will need a bit of help over on Steam Greenlight to get through the voting process and make it onto Steam’s store page. You can vote for the game by clicking on the banner below and showing a little love on the game’s official Greenlight page. To learn more about Stardust Vanguards you can also visit the official website.